Weekly Gamester Reset (Vote edition)

It’s almost over. After nearly two years, we’re finally going to pick a president in the next three days. I, for one, am relieved. I don’t think I can take another additional minute of this. I like the election and all, it’s just the unending coverage and campaign ads that get to me.

But one good side effect of this election is the free downloadable content. Pandemic Studios created Sen. Barack Obama and Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin characters for its fall title — Mercenaries 2: World in Flames.

Yes, you can now do what everyone has always wanted to do. You can use Sarah Palin to shoot stuff in Venezuela. Unfortunately, I don’t think there are moose down there. The country does have some oil. As for Obama, he does his damage in a suit and tie. It’s very professional.

And without further ado, this is what caught our eye this week:1. You can tell it’s the holiday season because of the spate of reviews in the past week. Early on, we had a dispatch from otaku reviewer Jerome Cartagena. He talked about how Saints Row 2 has successfully gotten out of Grand Theft Auto‘s enormouse shadow.

Just in time for the NBA season, guest reviewer Wes Schwengels took a look at NBA Live 09 and NBA 2K9. After spending considerable time with both games, he declared NBA 2K9 as the champion of video game basketball for this year.

Lastly, we got a double dose of reviews from guest reviewer Patrick Cant. He took a look at Zoo Hospital for the Wii and found it to be similar to Trauma Center series. You just have to replace the people with cute, cuddly animals like a panda.

2. Just in time for the release of LittleBigPlanet, I wrote up a piece talking about 10 level-design mistakes to avoid. Some of the tips include paying attention to the scale of your level and what to do with those pesky winches and pistons.

On top of that, LittleBigPlanet has been experiencing some server issues this week. So far, it hasn’t crippled the gameplay experience for us and perhaps in the future it will get better. Hmm, strike that, it better get better.

3. Meanwhile, Danny dabbled a little on the Fallout 3 front. To prepare you for the epic epicness of this game, he advises you to check out this retrospective.

Afterward, you can read his impression of this huge game. I’m playing through it right now and I just got out of the vault after borrowing the guide my brother bought. (I was looking for a good build for my character.)